AACC Launches Cyber Analyst Program

3/28/2014, 6 a.m.

New “Growing the Cyber Analyst” training begins this spring at the CyberCenter at Anne Arundel Community College’s Center for Cyber and Professional Training in Hanover with curriculum developed by OPS Consulting and the CyberCenter. (left to right) Tony Jordan, OPS Consulting Director of Analytics; Kelly Koermer, AACC Executive Director of the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security Technology and Joint Ventures; and Ben Stafford, OPS Consulting Cyber Analysis Support Specialist.
(Courtesy Photo)

HANOVER, Md.  How your business or organization handles a cyber threat may depend on how well your decision makers understand your cybersecurity team. Key to that connection is a cyber analyst, and Anne Arundel Community College and OPS Consulting have partnered to develop the “Growing the Analyst” training that will bridge that communications/knowledge gap.

This new curriculum, which begins this spring at AACC’s CyberCenter in Hanover, Md., helps participants build the knowledge, skills and abilities that are required to perform the duties of a cyber analyst. The Carnegie Mellon University and the Software Engineering Institute studied business and industry cybersecurity practices as part of a Cyber Intelligence Tradecraft Project and found that “the addition of strategic analysis to the analytic framework is the most effective means of bridging the communications gap between cybersecurity and non-technical decision makers.”

The curriculum developed by OPS Consulting and the CyberCenter focuses on both technical skills and non-technical core competencies to develop practitioners, not theorists. Designed to meet the needs of government and industry, the Growing the Analyst training is broken down into three levels of increasing difficulty to bring real-world experiences of a cyber analyst to help participants develop technical skills in the context of the job role. The hands-on lab work reinforces the instruction and allows participants to apply their technical skills while also building critical thinking, data collection/analysis and communication core competencies. Industry certification exam preparation for the CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+ and EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker also is included in the training.

The Growing the Analyst program is the newest of many business-oriented training programs offered at AACC’s CyberCenter, 7556 Teague Road, Suite 300, in Hanover. For information on this and other programs, visit www.aacc.edu/cybercenter, email cybercenter@aacc.edu or call 410-777-1333.